BSkyB's rivals such as Top Up TV and BT are not likely to be able to launch cut-price pay-TV football packages in time to cash in on the start of the next Premier League season in August, according to City analysts.

However, analysts at Citi, who forecast that BSkyB's share price will increase by 5% to 10% following today's ruling from Ofcom, argued that such as scenario is "unlikely" at best.

"BSkyB will appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal and will also ask for a 'stay' to delay implementation of the new pricing," said Citi in a research note. "Even if a 'stay' is not achieved we argue that with the practicalities of getting the technology set up correctly and reaching agreements on conditional access (coding... to avoid piracy) it is unlikely that new retail offers on sports will emerge before the new football season". This means BSkyB is likely to have more key time to drive subscriptions to its own services.

According to Becket McGrath, a competition lawyer at Edwards, Angell, Palmer and Dodge, the CAT will look to make a decision on BSkyB's stay appeal "within a matter of weeks".

Citi says that Ofcom's pricing for a bundle of Sky Sports 1 and 2, set for £17.14, is much higher than the midpoint of about £15 of the range the regulator had published in its phase three consultation document last year. This means that rivals will only be able to offer packages at about £27 to £28, according to Citi, making Sky's own bundles still attractive to consumers.

"The price point for the sports [channel] mix has been the focus and this is much better than the market expected," said Citi. "We believe this will allow Sky to maintain its competitive advantage in triple-play [offering three products to consumers such as TV, broadband and telephony] and spin-down [to cheaper packages] will be limited."

Citi added that an "unexpected positive" was the lack of enforced pricing around high definition sports channels.

Anlaysts at RBS concurred, pointing out that there is "plenty of wriggle room" for BSkyB. The pay-TV company will be able to make sure that it only has to deal with the 10% reduction Ofcom has ordered for selling both Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sport 2 to rivals by mixing content across the channels so customers will only be interested in buying both.

BSkyB will also be able to put some games on Sky Sports 3 and Sky Sports 4, which fall outside the regulations proposed by Ofcom today, to maintain its branding as the "home of football".

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This story was amended on 1 April 2010. It originally said that the Citi analysts believed Virgin Media would not be able to launch a cut-price service next season; but the analysts' comments apply only to prospective new entrants in the market, such as Top Up TV and BT Vision. This has been corrected.